Pets.com Will Shut Down,
Citing Insufficient Funding

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the end, not even the famous Sock Puppet could prevent Pets.com Inc. from becoming one of the first publicly traded Internet companies to fail.

Tuesday morning, as employees trickled into its trendy warehouse headquarters here, they learned that the online pet-supply retailer was about to close. Of the company's 320 employees, 255 were laid off right away. The company said it would sell the majority of its assets, including the remaining inventory. Also up for grabs: intellectual property including its...